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Devolution hampers Jakarta's bid to end haze

BURNING ISSUE: An Indonesian soldier helping to fight a peatland fire in south Sumatra. President Jokowi had promised to put out the forest fires in Riau by early October,

PHOTO: REUTERS

Jakarta

HAVING promised to extinguish forest fires in Riau in western Indonesia by early October, President Joko Widodo jetted into Sumatra last week for a progress check. The smoke was so thick his plane could not land, forcing him back to Jakarta.